Artemisia. | XLIII. COMPOSITZ. 241 
XVIII, ARTEMISIA. ARTEMISIA, 
Herbs or shrubs, usually highly aromatic, with narrow, alternate 
leaves, usually much divided, and often white or erey, at least on the 
under side. Flower-heads small, in terminal leafy racemes or panicles. 
Involucral bracts imbricated, usually loosely cottony, with slightly 
scarious edges. Tlorets the length of the involucres, yellow or greenish, 
either all tubular and 5-toothed, or the central ones tubular, 5-toothed, 
and male or barren, and the outer ones filiform, or 3-toothed, female, 
and fertile. Receptacle without scales. Achenes obovate, rounded or 
narrow at the top, without any pappus. 
A numerous genus, often covering vast tracts of land in eastern 
Europe and central Asia, and extending over nearly the whole of the 
northern hemisphere from the Arctic regions to the borders of the 
tropics. 
Stems spreading, much branched. Segments of the leaves 
narrow-linear or subulate. 
Stem and leaves cottony white. Involucres narrow-ovoid, or 
cylindrical, cottony : ‘ : ‘ . . 2 A. maritina. 
Stem and leaves green or reddish, Involucres ovoid, glabrous 1. A. campestris. 
Flowering stems or branches tall and erect. Segments of the 
leaves flat, broadly linear, or lanceolate. 
Leaves green above, white underneath, with pointed segments. 3. A. vulgaris. 
Leaves silky, whitish on both sides, with obtuse segments . 4. A. Absinthium. 
The shrubby Southernwood and the Tarragon of our gardens are species 
of Artemisia ; the latter (A. Dracunculus) is one of the very few species 
in which the leaves are not dissected. 
1. A. campestris, Linn. (fig. 536). Meld A.—Stock herbaceous and 
hard, or shrubby, low, and branched ; the annual branches twiggy, very 
spreading or procumbent, a foot long or more, nearly glabrous, often 
turning red. Leaves small, once or twice pinnate, with few very 
narrow-linear segments, green, at least on the upper side. Flower- 
heads small, ovoid, in numerous loose spikes or racemes, forming a 
long leafy panicle. Involucre not cottony, containing 5 or 6 outer 
female florets, and about as many central male or barren ones. 
In heaths, and dry, sandy, or stony wastes, widely spread over Europe 
and temperate Asia, extending far into Scandinavia. In Britain, almost 
peculiar to a small tract of country in the north-west of Suffolk and 
adjacent portion of Norfolk. FU. autwmn. 
2. A. maritima, Linn. (fig. 537). Sea A.—A much branched, decum- 
bent or nearly erect undershrub, more or less covered with a close white 
cotton. Leaves twice pinnate, with narrow-linear segments, shorter 
and more compact than in A. campestris. Flower-heads small, narrow- 
ovoid or nearly cylindrical, erect or drooping, each containing from 38 
to 5 or 6 florets, all tubular and fertile. 
In sandy and muddy wastes, generally near the sea, occupying large 
tracts of country near the Caspian and Black Seas, and extending round 
the Mediterranean, and along the Atlantic, up to the coasts of Britain, 
as far as Wigton on the west, and Aberdeen on the east; N.E. Ireland, 
and Channel Islands. Fl. autumn. [Two very different looking forms 
occur, often intermixed: A. maritima, L., with shortly pedicelled 
ere heads; and A. gallica, Willd., with nearly sessile spiked 
eads. | 
3. A. vulgaris, Linn. (fig. 538). Muygwort.—Stock thick and woody, 
Q 
